Etymologically
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Pronunciation

  • IPA: UK /ʃɒp/, US /ʃɑːp/[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English shoppe, ssope,[2][3] perhaps inherited from Old English sceoppa (“booth, shed”), scoppa, a rare word,[4][2][3] related to scypen (“cowshed”),[4][2] from Proto-Germanic *skoppan (“small additional structure”),[4] the source also of Old High German scopf “porch, shed” and German Schuppen “shed”.[4][3] Or the word was taken, with loss of the first syllable, from Anglo-Norman and Old French eschoppe “lean-to booth, cobbler's stall” (modern échoppe), itself a Germanic loan from the same root,[4][5][6] through Middle Low German schoppe.[5] Barnhart and Merriam-Webster compare sheaf, supposing an original sense “roof thatched with straw”.[2][3] The verb is from the noun.[2][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

A house or building where goods are made or prepared for sale: 1297 in the OED,[7] about 1300 in Barnhart and Etymonline;[2][4] Shoppe was a surname from 1301.[2] The earliest shops were small stalls or booths, like those in a market.[8]

Semantic evolution

A building or room for the sale of goods is from 1362,[7] the mid-14th century in Etymonline.[4] A workshop for a particular trade is from the 15th century.[7] The verb first meant “to shut up, imprison” (1583), from an obsolete slang use of the noun for a prison;[7][9] it survives in British slang as “to inform on someone”, which Word Origins dates to 1548.[8][6] “To visit shops to buy” is from 1764,[4][2] and shop around from 1922.[4] Talk shop, “talk about one's trade”, is by 1847, and shoptalk from 1881.[4][2] Shopkeeper is from 1530, shoplifter from 1680 and shopping center from 1898.[2] Shop till you drop is as early as 1904.[8]

Timeline

  • 1297 – a place where goods are made for sale.[7]
  • 1362 – a place where goods are sold.[7]
  • 1530 – shopkeeper.[2]
  • 1583 – verb, to imprison.[7]
  • 1680 – shoplifter.[2]
  • 1764 – verb, to visit shops.[4][2]
  • 1847 – talk shop.[4]
  • 1898 – shopping center.[2]
  • 1922 – shop around.[4]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. A building or room where goods are sold; a store.
  2. A place where things are made or repaired; a workshop.
  3. A business or place of work; one's trade as a subject of talk: talk shop.
  4. (US) A school class in practical crafts.

Verb

  1. To visit shops to look at or buy goods.
  2. To look for the best choice or price: shop around.
  3. (British slang) To inform on someone to the police.

Word family

  • shopper
  • shoppe
  • shopkeeper
  • shoplifter
  • shopping
  • workshop
  • sheaf
  • shippon

References

  1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  3. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  5. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  7. ^ a b c d e f g Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  8. ^ a b c Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  9. ^ Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press